Sandcraft: 10 Amazing Sand Artists with Awesome Artwork

Latvian artist Helena Bangert‘s sand sculptures fall a bit outside the norm – they’re more avant garde than your typical castles, though they still occasionally feature subjects like Pinhead from the “Hellraiser” movies. Helena studied at the Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam and first thought of using sand as a medium when she was invited to create a sculpture for an exhibition at a retirement home for elderly seamen located in a small Dutch coastal village.

Ilana Yahav

Ilana Yahav‘s sand art differs dramatically from that of most artists who work in this medium. She uses nothing but her fingers to “draw” in sand, creating performance art by weaving together the movements of her hands, the sand falling, lights and music. As Ilana works, a story unfolds with every-changing visuals.

Michel Lepire

Quebec sculptor Michel Lepire has been working in sand since 1996, and is the organizer of one of the most prestigious sand sculpting competitions in the world, Les Internationaux de sculpture sur sable de Qubec, held every August in Quebec City.

Amazin Walter

Since his beginnings casually playing in the sand in South Padre Island, Texas in the early 80s, the man who calls himself Amazin Walter has come far. He has created hundreds of sandcastles in 6 countries and 13 states. His work has been featured on Oprah and in a Best Buy commercial. Renaissance man Amazin Walter is also a photographer, jeweler, clown, magician and musician.

Sandsational

Sandsational is a group of professional sculptors with backgrounds in areas like fine art, design engineering and performance art. Sandsational often creates sand sculptures for promotional purposes and has worked with brands like McDonalds and Harley Davidson. Continue on to see even more amazing art from ordinary materials.

This is amazing work. I don’t know how you keep coming up with so many cool pictures for your blog. Every time I look there is something cool that I’ve never seen before. Thank you.

NanimJuly 20th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

Very nice, cool and amazing.

subcorpusJuly 20th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

just amazing … awesome …

MaryJuly 20th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

The details on the sand sculptures are very realistic, it makes me think of all the hard work and time the artists must have put into them.

Joe | A New Band A DayJuly 21st, 2008 at 1:59 am

Wow, it’s just so difficult to believe that these are made from sand! They are just wonderful. And it’s somehow really pleasing that these amazing artworks are impermanent, and will just quickly wash away. Really great, thanks.

I am a writer for SIDETRIP MAGAZINE and I am looking for possible sand artists to interview about sand sculpting. Would you happen to know how to contact or do you have any of the email addresses of the amazing artists you featured? Particularly Ilana Yahav? Thank you very much and more power to you.